Finding God in Life’s Famine

TITLE: Ruth: A Model of Grace Under Pressure

TEXT: Ruth 1:1-22THEME: God has not forgotten us when we feel hopeless and abandoned.

FINDING GOD IN GOD’S FAMINE

Finding God in Life’s Famine

You know you’re having a bad day when:

• you put both contacts into the same eye.

You know you’re having a bad day when:

• you put both contacts into the same eye. • your twin sister forgets your birthday

You know you’re having a bad day when:

• you put both contacts into the same eye. • your twin sister forgets your birthday.• you wake up and your braces are stuck

together

You know you’re having a bad day when:

• you put both contacts into the same eye. • your twin sister forgets your birthday.• you wake up and your braces are stuck

together. • when it costs more to fill up your car than it

did to buy it

You know you’re having a bad day when:

• you put both contacts into the same eye. • your twin sister forgets your birthday.• you wake up and your braces are stuck

together. • when it costs more to fill up your car than it

did to buy it. • you show up for work and you’re greeted by

Mike Wallace

You know you’re having a bad day when:

• you put both contacts into the same eye. • your twin sister forgets your birthday.• you wake up and your braces are stuck together. • when it costs more to fill up your car than it did

to buy it. • you show up for work and you’re greeted by

Mike Wallace. • your doctor tells you that you’re allergic to

chocolate

You know you’re having a bad day when:

• you put both contacts into the same eye. • your twin sister forgets your birthday.• you wake up and your braces are stuck together. • when it costs more to fill up your car than it did to buy

it. • you show up for work and you’re greeted by Mike

Wallace. • your doctor tells you that you’re allergic to chocolate. • you wake and find your waterbed has sprung a leak

and then realise that you don’t have a waterbed.

Song From Hee Haw

"Gloom, despair and agony on me-e!Deep dark depression, excessive misery-y!If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all!Gloom, despair and agony on me-e-e!"

Murphy’s Law states

“If anything can go wrong, it will- at the most inopportune time.”

Finding God in Life’s Famine

How should the believer respond when facing depression due to

hopelessness and abandonment?

II. When things are at their worst they can only get better. (1-5)

Ruth 1:1-5

1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion.

Ruth 1:1-5

They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there. 3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

II. When things are at their worst they can only get better. (1-5)

Naomi HadFour Strikes Against Her– Strike one: Famine in the land

II. When things are at their worst they can only get better. (1-5)

Naomi HadFour Strikes Against Her– Strike one: Famine in the land– Strike two: Her husband dies

II. When things are at their worst they can only get better. (1-5)

Naomi HadFour Strikes Against Her– Strike one: Famine in the land– Strike two: Her husband dies– Strike three: Her sons die

II. When things are at their worst they can only get better. (1-5)

Naomi HadFour Strikes Against Her– Strike one: Famine in the land– Strike two: Her husband dies– Strike three: Her sons die– Strike four: She has to leave her home

Tragedy

• Sometimes tragedy kind of sneaks up on you.

Tragedy

• Sometimes tragedy kind of sneaks up on you.

• Sometimes tragedy simply hits you full-body and knocks you down.

Tragedy

• Sometimes tragedy kind of sneaks up on you.

• Sometimes tragedy simply hits you full-body and knocks you down.

• Ruth tells us that tragedy, no matter how encompassing it may be in our life never has the last word

Tragedy

• Sometimes tragedy kind of sneaks up on you. • Sometimes tragedy simply hits you full-body

and knocks you down.• Ruth tells us that tragedy, no matter how

encompassing it may be in our life never has the last word.

• For the believer the last word is always Triumph.

Finding God in Life’s Famine

How should the believer respond when facing depression due to

hopelessness and abandonment?

II. Don’t make things worse by driving away those who support

you. (6-15)

Ruth 1:6-15

6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.

Ruth 1:6-15

8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.

Ruth 1:6-15

11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!

Ruth 1:6-15

14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. 15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”

II. Don’t make things worse by driving away those who support you. (6-15)

A. Naomi had two supportive daughters in law who shared her plight.

II. Don’t make things worse by driving away those who support you. (6-15)

A. Naomi had two supportive daughters in law who shared her plight.B. She wanted to deliver them from her hopelessness.

II. Don’t make things worse by driving away those who support you. (6-15)

A. Naomi had two supportive daughters in law who shared her plight.B. She wanted to deliver them from her hopelessness.C. She was sending them to the worship of a false God.

Finding God in Life’s Famine

How should the believer respond when facing depression due to

hopelessness and abandonment?

III. Accept the support of those who love you and share your pain. (16-22)

Ruth 1:16-22

16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her

Ruth 1:16-22

19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” 20 “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicte me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

Ruth 1:16-22

22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

III. Accept the support of those who love you and share your pain. (16-22)

A. Ruth was loving and loyal to Naomi

III. Accept the support of those who love you and share your pain. (16-22)

A. Ruth was loving and loyal to NaomiB. Ruth was loving and loyal to her new found God

The Velcro Effect

The Velcro Effect is a term that describes the relationship between God’s Faithfulness to us and our need for Him.

Finding God in Life’s Famine

APPLICATION:

God has not abandoned you. When things seem hopeless and pointless it simply means that God has something new and different in mind for you. He will not leave you alone in the pit of despair. Things will get better.

APPLICATION:

During those times don’t leave and abandon those who are there to support you and encourage you. God can use them in your life to help you out of the pit.

APPLICATION:

Don’t disqualify the words encouragement and hope those who love you are giving. God provides them for us to help through times such as these.

Finding God in Life’s Famine

The Simple message of Little Bo Peep

“Little Bo Peep’s lost her sheep will come home.”

The stories of Ruth and “Little Bo Peep” share something in common.

When you get through all the verbiage and details the message is

quite simple. Tragedy is turned into Triumph. And so it is for the believer in Jesus your loss and suffering is not

the end of the story- God has something better in store for you.

Finding God in Life’s Famine